Japanese ruling parties agree to start conspiracy bill debate Thursday

[yuiyoshida]

TOKYO —
Japan’s ruling parties have agreed to introduce a contentious bill on Thursday at a plenary session of the House of Representatives that would punish those planning to carry out serious crimes.

The Diet affairs chiefs of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito reached an agreement at a meeting on Monday, lawmakers said.

The government says the bill is necessary to ward off terrorism at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, and to ratify the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which Japan signed in 2000.

But opposition parties, arguing that the new bill is no different from three previous bills that were scrapped, are concerned it could allow the suppression of free speech, invasive state surveillance and arbitrary punishment of civic groups and labor unions.

Opponents also say the bill would amount to a fundamental change in Japan’s criminal code by charging people in connection with crimes that have not been committed.

Abe sought cooperation over the bill in a meeting between the government and ruling parties on Monday.

https://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/ruling-parties-agree-to-start-conspiracy-bill-debate-thursday?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter